I don't usually post on weekends, but my Richard Bishop interview just went up lasdt night at FlavorWire, the latest of my unpaid writing gigs...the good thing about this one is that it only took about a week and a half, from assignment to web posting, and also that Richard Bishop is so amazing and they said okay anyway unlike some websites I could mention...but won't.
Anyway, here's a link to the story
Also, wish me luck. I'm running the Pack Monadnock 10 miler tomorrow morning, a scenic jaunt through southern new hampshire that ends with a 1.3 mile climb up Pack Monadnock...not as big as actual Monadnock, the tallest mountain in SWNH, but still a big hill. I'm in reasonably good shape considering it's not even June yet, but maybe not that good. We'll see.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
I dabble in pop metal…
My strategy of asking for anything at all from Hydra Head finally ran aground with the mildly entertaining, but really kind of pretentious new album from Big Business…It came out last week, and I reviewed it today at Dusted.
Big Business
Mind the Drift
Hydra Head
Big Business grows from a two-piece to a trio with this third album, augmenting the sludgy, low-end, drum and bass buzz of the band’s Here Come the Waterworks sound with a serious melodic turn toward big floating psych riffs and three-part harmonies. Bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis take a big step away from their part-time jobs in the Melvins (and from Warren’s work in Karp) by inviting guitarist Toshi Kasai into the club. The bass may still be an ominous thunder of distortion, the drums a continual, chaotic kit-hopping roll, but the vocals now sound like a weird cross of stadium metal and the Beach Boys.
There’s a cut from Mind the Drift on my fabulous new mix, next entry down.
“Gold & Drift” can be downloaded from Spin.com
Big Business
Mind the Drift
Hydra Head
Big Business grows from a two-piece to a trio with this third album, augmenting the sludgy, low-end, drum and bass buzz of the band’s Here Come the Waterworks sound with a serious melodic turn toward big floating psych riffs and three-part harmonies. Bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis take a big step away from their part-time jobs in the Melvins (and from Warren’s work in Karp) by inviting guitarist Toshi Kasai into the club. The bass may still be an ominous thunder of distortion, the drums a continual, chaotic kit-hopping roll, but the vocals now sound like a weird cross of stadium metal and the Beach Boys.
There’s a cut from Mind the Drift on my fabulous new mix, next entry down.
“Gold & Drift” can be downloaded from Spin.com
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Yet another mix
Warning, my husband didn't like this one, said a couple of the songs reminded him of 70s lite rock, and may have even used the phrase "Elton John crap"...so proceed with care. Downlown here
Tracks
1. King Khan and the Shrines, "Le Fils De Jacques Dutronc" From What Is?, a formerly German-only release just repackaged by Vice...fun retro soul/garage stuff, especially in French.
2. Fish Turned Human, "The INternational" Possibly my latest very favorite song, torn from a fundraising compilation put together by WFMU's Terre T, and featuring, apparently, Andy Metcalfe from the Soft Boys. 1979-ish and sounds it.
3. Tyvek, "Hey Una" My other new favorite song, this one from the latest record by Tyvek, out of Detroit, whom I vaguely remember seeing a couple of years ago at SXSW. Apparently shitgaze is over now, so it is very uncool to like this stuff anymore. Sigh.
4. Vaselines, "Sex Sux (Amen)" Sub Pop reissue I'm liking very much and doesn't it go really well with the Tyvek?
5. Blank Dogs, "Tin Birds" More lo-fi, subtley Cure-like in the bass, but so fuzzy, you're not exactly willing to put your reputation on the comparison.
6. Lali Puna, "I Like Rain" from that NZ cover compilsation. The original's by JPS Experience.
7. Jeffrey Lewis, "Mini Theme: Moocher from the Future" Nice bit of whimsy from the graphic novelist, anti-folk songwriter. This may have been one of the 70s songs referenced above.
8. Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers, "Blood Bank Blues," My current favorite Oblivians side project...though this could change any any time.
9. Those Darlins' "Wild One" More Tennessee, this time all girls and pretty damned country for an aging punk like me.
10. Sir Richard Bishop, "Barbary" From the guy's Arab album, though possibly one of the least Arab songs on it.
11. Six Organs of Admittance, "Cover Your Wounds With Sky" More guitar, more effects, very nice.
12. John Vanderslice, "Carina Constellation," My pick off The Romanian Names, which is to say a tall-ish dwarf. Clearly one of the 70s objectionables.
13. PJ Harvey and John Parish, "Black Hearted Love" Might be interviewing Parish later, not sure.
14. Crystal Antlers, "Tentacles," Great band, lousy interview, more later.
15. Oneida, "I Will Haunt You," Have I mentioned how much I like Oneida? Thought so, sorry.
16. Big Business, "I Got It Online," Two guys who are best known as late additions to the Melvins, kind of a weird, choral harmonized metal record.
Tracks
1. King Khan and the Shrines, "Le Fils De Jacques Dutronc" From What Is?, a formerly German-only release just repackaged by Vice...fun retro soul/garage stuff, especially in French.
2. Fish Turned Human, "The INternational" Possibly my latest very favorite song, torn from a fundraising compilation put together by WFMU's Terre T, and featuring, apparently, Andy Metcalfe from the Soft Boys. 1979-ish and sounds it.
3. Tyvek, "Hey Una" My other new favorite song, this one from the latest record by Tyvek, out of Detroit, whom I vaguely remember seeing a couple of years ago at SXSW. Apparently shitgaze is over now, so it is very uncool to like this stuff anymore. Sigh.
4. Vaselines, "Sex Sux (Amen)" Sub Pop reissue I'm liking very much and doesn't it go really well with the Tyvek?
5. Blank Dogs, "Tin Birds" More lo-fi, subtley Cure-like in the bass, but so fuzzy, you're not exactly willing to put your reputation on the comparison.
6. Lali Puna, "I Like Rain" from that NZ cover compilsation. The original's by JPS Experience.
7. Jeffrey Lewis, "Mini Theme: Moocher from the Future" Nice bit of whimsy from the graphic novelist, anti-folk songwriter. This may have been one of the 70s songs referenced above.
8. Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers, "Blood Bank Blues," My current favorite Oblivians side project...though this could change any any time.
9. Those Darlins' "Wild One" More Tennessee, this time all girls and pretty damned country for an aging punk like me.
10. Sir Richard Bishop, "Barbary" From the guy's Arab album, though possibly one of the least Arab songs on it.
11. Six Organs of Admittance, "Cover Your Wounds With Sky" More guitar, more effects, very nice.
12. John Vanderslice, "Carina Constellation," My pick off The Romanian Names, which is to say a tall-ish dwarf. Clearly one of the 70s objectionables.
13. PJ Harvey and John Parish, "Black Hearted Love" Might be interviewing Parish later, not sure.
14. Crystal Antlers, "Tentacles," Great band, lousy interview, more later.
15. Oneida, "I Will Haunt You," Have I mentioned how much I like Oneida? Thought so, sorry.
16. Big Business, "I Got It Online," Two guys who are best known as late additions to the Melvins, kind of a weird, choral harmonized metal record.
Oooh, new Jay Reatard!
Jay Reatard’s Blood Visions is maybe the only record I’ve heard in the last five years or so that stands a chance at all-time top ten…brilliantly sharp and short and dark and paranoid, but lightened somehow by a strangled pop sensibility and new wave keyboards. His last set of singles (the Matador set) seemed to point towards even better things, a broadening and deepening of a sound that had already knocked me flat. So now, very exciting…Matador has put up a free mp3 from Jay Reatard’s upcoming (August) full-length, Watch Me Fall.
It’s called “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” and, I beg to disagree. It may just save us all.
It’s called “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” and, I beg to disagree. It may just save us all.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Symbols in this world
Nice to see some big thinking out there in rock-ville...here's my review of songwriter Dan Zimmerman's latest, up last week at Blurt.
Dan Zimmerman, Cosmic Patriot (Sounds Familyre)
Immanence, the concept that the divine resides within the material world, is the driving force behind this eccentrically powerful songwriter album. Zimmerman, who has lived all kinds of lives, from preacher's son, to itinerant hippie, to gallery-approved visual artist, finds a bit of god's spark in everything and his songs link ordinary observations to animating mysteries. "Symbols in this world, of the world to come," he sings in his big hollow baritone, at times sounding like Leonard Cohen, at others Richard Thompson or Silver Jews' David Berman, but always seeking the hidden spiritual underpinnings of everyday matter.
More:
“Symbols in this World”
I wrote the bio for his Dusted Listed a couple of week ago, too.
Dan Zimmerman, Cosmic Patriot (Sounds Familyre)
Immanence, the concept that the divine resides within the material world, is the driving force behind this eccentrically powerful songwriter album. Zimmerman, who has lived all kinds of lives, from preacher's son, to itinerant hippie, to gallery-approved visual artist, finds a bit of god's spark in everything and his songs link ordinary observations to animating mysteries. "Symbols in this world, of the world to come," he sings in his big hollow baritone, at times sounding like Leonard Cohen, at others Richard Thompson or Silver Jews' David Berman, but always seeking the hidden spiritual underpinnings of everyday matter.
More:
“Symbols in this World”
I wrote the bio for his Dusted Listed a couple of week ago, too.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Toussaint’s turn to jazz
I had the distinct honor, a few weeks ago, of interviewing Allen Toussaint about his new album The Bright Mississippi, out now on Nonesuch. Here’s the result, up today at Blurt:
New Orleans Vitality: Allen Toussaint
Since the 1960s, Allen Toussaint has been nearly synonymous with New Orleans' funk, soul and R&B, writing classic songs like "Fortune Teller," "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley," "Working in a Coal Mine," and "Pain in My Heart" and working with everyone from Lee Dorsey to Paul McCartney to Labelle to Fats Domino to Elvis Costello.
What Toussaint had never really done, until this year's The Bright Mississippi, was to play jazz. Funny, because Toussaint grew up in the town that invented jazz and played piano in its juke joints and dance hops from the age of 13 on. His neighborhood, Gert Town, was full of musicians, an old banjo player on one side of the block, a blind guitarist on the other. The music of New Orleans' funeral marches and Dixieland clubs was in the air, drifting through the windows, playing on radios, and yet Toussaint never tried his hand at it. "Well, I heard jazz, but I didn't take to performing it really," says Toussaint. "I had been busy with the R&B and didn't really know how to find these wonderful songs."
More
New Orleans Vitality: Allen Toussaint
Since the 1960s, Allen Toussaint has been nearly synonymous with New Orleans' funk, soul and R&B, writing classic songs like "Fortune Teller," "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley," "Working in a Coal Mine," and "Pain in My Heart" and working with everyone from Lee Dorsey to Paul McCartney to Labelle to Fats Domino to Elvis Costello.
What Toussaint had never really done, until this year's The Bright Mississippi, was to play jazz. Funny, because Toussaint grew up in the town that invented jazz and played piano in its juke joints and dance hops from the age of 13 on. His neighborhood, Gert Town, was full of musicians, an old banjo player on one side of the block, a blind guitarist on the other. The music of New Orleans' funeral marches and Dixieland clubs was in the air, drifting through the windows, playing on radios, and yet Toussaint never tried his hand at it. "Well, I heard jazz, but I didn't take to performing it really," says Toussaint. "I had been busy with the R&B and didn't really know how to find these wonderful songs."
More
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The DVD that got me fired from PopMatters
Well, screw them, I reviewed it for Blurt…and they made it a feature.
It’s actually a pretty wonderful DVD about Tinariwen, with concert footage, a couple of documentaries and a long interview with the band’s founder. I was particularly fascinated with the extra features, writing, “The landscapes of Northern Mali and Algeria come to life in these extra features, their wild, sparsely populated expanses, traversed by camel caravans, torn by war and rebellion, stunted by famine and drought, but ultimately the source of inspiration for all of Tinariwen's art.”
Read all about it here .
It’s actually a pretty wonderful DVD about Tinariwen, with concert footage, a couple of documentaries and a long interview with the band’s founder. I was particularly fascinated with the extra features, writing, “The landscapes of Northern Mali and Algeria come to life in these extra features, their wild, sparsely populated expanses, traversed by camel caravans, torn by war and rebellion, stunted by famine and drought, but ultimately the source of inspiration for all of Tinariwen's art.”
Read all about it here .
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